As we look at the picture we feel sure that Millet
was a lover of children, and it is pleasant to know
that he had many of his own. The artist father
was his children’s favorite playmate, and at
the close of his day’s work in his studio, they
ran to meet him with shouts of joy. He used to
like to walk about the garden with them showing them
the flowers. In winter time they sat together
by the fire, and the father sang songs and drew pictures
for the little ones. Sometimes taking a log from
the wood basket he would carve a doll out of it, and
paint the cheeks with vermilion. This is the sort
of doll we see on the window seat in our picture.

Ruskin tells us that a true artist feels like a caged
bird in painting any enclosed space, unless it contains
some opening like a door or window. No amount
of beauty will content us, he says, if we are shut
in to that alone. Our picture is a good proof
of this principle. We can easily fancy how different
the effect would be without the window: the room
would appear almost like a prisoner’s cell.
As it is, the great window suggests the out-of-door
world into which it opens, and gives us a sense of
larger space.

Our illustration is taken from a drawing. Millet
was a painstaking artist who made many drawings and
studies for his paintings. This is probably such
a study, as there is also a painting by him of the
same subject very similar to this.

III

THE POTATO PLANTERS

In the picture called The Potato Planters we are reminded
at once of the peasants we have already seen in Going
to Work. We see here married people a few years
older than the young people of the other picture working
together in the fields.

It may be that this is their own little plot of ground,
for they work with a certain air of proprietorship.
They look prosperous, too, and are somewhat better
dressed than common laborers. It is the highest
ambition of the French peasant to own a bit of land.
He will make any sacrifice to get it, and possessing
it, is well content. He labors with constant
industry to make it yield well.

The field here is at quite a distance from the village
where the workers live. We can see the little
group of houses on the horizon. In France the
agricultural classes do not build their dwelling-houses
on their farms, but live instead in village communities,
with the farms in the outlying districts. The
custom has many advantages. The families may
help one another in various ways both by joining forces
and exchanging services. They may also share in
common the use of church, school, and post office.
This French farming system has been adopted in Canada,
while in our own country we follow the English custom
of building isolated farmhouses.